Impact of COVID-19 on Adolescent STI Diagnoses: Insights from Recent Research
A recent study revealed that STI diagnoses among adolescents INCREASED during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Masonbrink et al. (2024) conducted a retrospective study comparing adolescent (11-18 years of age) hospital and in-patient visits that resulted in an STI diagnosis from pre-COVID (2017-2019) through the pandemic.
In total, researchers reviewed 2,747,135 adolescent visits in the US at hospital emergencies and in-patient settings. Of these visits, 10,941 resulted in an STI diagnosis.
Of these 10,941 STI cases, 54.5% were the primary diagnosis (hospital visits accounted for 36%, and in patient accounted for 66%).
Compared to pre-COVID times, there was a 30.4% median increase in inpatient weekly visits that resulted in STIs during the summer. Fall experienced a similar rise of 27.3%.
Like any good study, the researchers acknowledge that there is conflicting research that actually showed a decrease in STIs. The researchers attribute their findings may be due to 1) how people get their health information
2) relying more on hospital based care
Based on their overall findings, the researchers suggested that adolescents need additional education, support, and access to sexual and reproductive healthcare information and care.